'NY Times Magazine' article shows reality through Palestinian eyes

Ben Ehrenreich’s report from Nabi Saleh is a rare feature in a media world that has grown accustomed to telling the story of the occupation through Israeli eyes.

A Palestinian youth runs through a cloud of tear gas shot by the Israeli army during the weekly protest against the occupation in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh, December 7, 2012. The protest was held to mark a year for the killing of Mustafa Tamimi on December 9, 2011. (photo by: Oren Ziv/ Activestills.org)

Of all the Hebrew-language media outlets, it was the liberal Haaretz that labeled Ben Ehrenreich’s excellent feature on the protest in Nabi Saleh as a “pro-Palestinian manifesto.” The piece, detailing the history of weekly demonstrations against the occupation in the tiny Palestinian village, was the cover story of the New York Times Magazine yesterday.
Ehrenreich’s piece is indeed “unusual,” as Chemi Shalev writes in Haaretz – not because it is “pro-Palestinian” (if anything, Ehrenreich’s somber tone sometimes disguises the brutality and hopelessness of the situation), but because its point of departure is the plight of Palestinians under occupation, and not the internal Israeli debate over the future of “the territories.”
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